THe US did wonders for the Afghani women!!!! I'll bet they are glad we are now protecting their freedom!!!!!( tongue in cheek)
Women forced to have chastity tests : Afghan warlords still enforcing Taliban oppression
Jonathan Steele
Tuesday December 17, 2002
The Guardian
Women in the western Afghan city of Herat are often arrested,
taken to hospital and subject to abusive gynaecological
examinations just for walking in the street with a man or riding in
a taxi without another passenger, Human Rights Watch reports
today.
In Herat, every woman has to wear the burqa while TV stations
substitute pictures of flowers during foreign programmes when
women appear with any hair uncovered.
After conducting more than 100 interviews between September
and November in Herat and Kabul, the watchdog shows how
little life has changed for women in Herat under the hardline
governor, Ismail Khan.
Although particularly bad in Herat, the reports says similar
abuses are found all over Afghanistan. In the capital, Kabul, the
Taliban's Vice and Virtue squad has been reconfigured under the
name "Islamic Teaching" and harasses women for wearing
make-up.
Elsewhere, the troops of rival warlords with close military ties
with US and other foreign forces have committed gang rapes.
The abuses are not confined to Pashtun areas where the Taliban
was strong. Mr Khan is a Tajik who opposed the Taliban.
Troops loyal to General Mohammed Fahim, a senior Northern
Alliance commander and the central government's defence
minister, "have been enforcing Taliban-era 'moral' restrictions"
such as "forbidding families from playing music at weddings and
dancing, and in some cases arresting and beating musicians",
Human Rights Watch says.
"Many people outside the country believe that Afghan women
and girls have had their rights restored. It's just not true," says
Zama Coursen-Neff, co-author of the report.
"The US-led coalition justified the war against the Taliban in part
by promising that it would liberate Afghanistan's women and
girls ... The international community has broken that promise."
While conditions in Herat are better than under the Taliban, Mr
Khan has pressured women not to work for foreign
non-governmental organisations, has urged them to stick to
teaching in girls' schools, and has ordered them not to drive.
Women and girls are afraid to go out except on essential
business because of tight restrictions enforced not only by the
police but by adolescent boys trained to spy on them.
A doctor at Herat's only hospital told Human Rights Watch that
police bring in about 10 girls and women a day for "chastity"
tests.
In one case in October, police arrested a girl and her cousin in
the bazaar. The girl was taken to the maternity ward with such a
commotion that at least 100 people saw her. Two doctors
examined her and determined she was "perfectly healthy and
untouched".
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